Derek Jeter

January 1, 1970

The New York Yankees shortstop is set for another playoff appearance.

The Rays Are the Latest Team to Give Up on the 2018 Season

The latest MLB tank job takes us to Florida, but not the team you expected. The Marlins made national waves this winter for their teardown, in which their best players were shipped out of town to help new owners Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman pay off the franchise’s massive debts. But not to be outdone in terms of a Sunshine State sell-off, the Rays have spent the last week trying to catch up to Miami in terms of surrendering the season before it even begins.

To replace all of those outgoing names, the Rays have done … well, nothing. Tampa’s transaction log is a stream of departures with little in the way of additions. The team has signed a single major league free agent, bringing back veteran reliever Sergio Romo (UPDATE: This afternoon, the Rays added a second, reportedly coming to terms with outfielder Carlos Gomez on a one-year pact). Otherwise, the Rays have settled for inking no-name players to minor league contracts. That holds for the trades, too: Span and ex-Angels first baseman C.J. Cron are the only established major leaguers acquired so far, and both are far from what you’d call difference makers.

The result is a Rays team that, a few bright spots aside, will be bad (at best) in 2018. Where Morrison and Longoria and Dickerson and Souza were, Tampa will now turn to the forgettable likes of Cron, Brad Miller, Daniel Robertson, Matt Duffy, and Mallex Smith. With Odorizzi and Cobb gone, Chris Archer is the team’s only trustworthy starter. The bullpen is equally bereft of recognizable or reliable names beyond closer Alex Colome. In the rough-and-tumble AL East, Tampa stands virtually no chance with that sorry assemblage, despite its front office’s risible claims that the Rays will be competitive.

It’s a sad end for a franchise that was, at one point, the model of how to build a winner on a shoestring budget. The Rays could never compete with division rivals New York or Boston (or really anyone else) for top free agents, but Tampa kept motoring along, somehow stringing together winning seasons despite a payroll that would’ve been a rounding error for the Yankees. That all began to come crashing down in 2014, when the Rays slumped from 92 wins and a wild-card berth to 77 wins and fourth place in the AL East; they’ve missed the playoffs the last four years running.

It’s going to be a long time, most likely, until the Rays see the postseason again. But while contention was going to be a tough task in 2018 no matter what, it’s still startling to see how thoroughly they’ve given up on the season. There are tank jobs, and then there’s what Tampa’s front office has done, stripping the team of most of its best parts and leaving nothing but Archer, Colome, Kevin Kiermaier and some fringe major leaguers. What’s galling is how little the Rays have gotten in return for their firesale. Longoria returned two pitchers with big arms but likely bullpen futures and infielder Christian Arroyo, who has potential but was overwhelmed in the majors last year. Odorizzi returned a single player, a low-minors shortstop. Souza was worth two minor leaguers, both fine but neither a star. And Dickerson, an All-Star in 2017, may get the Rays nothing if they’re unable to work out a trade.

All of those players have their flaws—Longoria is aging and expensive, Odorizzi is coming off a mediocre year, Dickerson collapsed in the second half—but it’s still a sorry state of affairs to dump all those players for what amounts to a few lottery tickets. And while the Rays’ front office has made all the requisite noises about competing now and re-tooling for later, it’s hard not to look at this winter’s moves as a franchise punting on a season simply to save money. By selling off Longoria, Dickerson, Souza, and Odorizzi, the team cut roughly $30 million off its already anemic payroll; as it currently stands, Tampa’s financial commitments for 2018 are just around $73 million, a steep drop from last year’s $91 million figure. Amazingly enough, that $73 million mark—nearly $80 million below last year’s league average payroll—isn’t even the lowest in baseball currently. The White Sox ($70 million), Phillies ($67 million), and A’s ($59 million) are all below the Rays; the Pirates and Marlins aren’t far off.

Not every team can be the Dodgers, but it’s disheartening to see how many teams have refused to open their wallets this winter—and how shameless they’ve been about it. In an era of exploding revenues and where each owner was gifted a $50 million payment from MLB as part of its sale of BAMTech, there’s no excuse for the kind of penny-pinching we’re seeing. That’s especially the case for Tampa, which despite a weak offense went 80–82 last year and had the pieces in place, both in the majors and in a strong farm system, to contend for at least a wild-card spot, if ownership had agreed to spend this winter.

Instead, Rays fans will be gifted at-bats from Cron and Span, starts from Nate Eovaldi and Matt Andriese, and relief appearances from Triple A Durham’s most unexciting arms. They’ll watch as Longoria, who should have retired a Ray, instead tries to lift the Giants out of the doldrums. They’ll wait to see where Colome and Archer end up, either sometime this spring or at the trade deadline. They’ll wonder how long they’ll get to hold on to Blake Snell and Brent Honeywell and the rest of the team’s exciting young players, their clocks already ticking. And they’ll get the sales pitch from ownership for a gleaming new stadium in Tampa’s Ybor City—one that will likely cost taxpayers in Hillsborough County hundreds of millions of dollars to house the next group of players sold off when they get too expensive.

Rays fans deserved better. So do the fans of the Marlins, Pirates, A’s, and what feels like a dozen other teams who have openly stopped trying to field a competitive squad, choosing instead to slash payroll or simply not spend. Rob Manfred may not like the word “tanking,” but that’s what this is, plain and simple: a losing product designed to save money, not compete. The players know it and don’tlike it; the empty seats at Tropicana Field will be proof enough of how the fans feel. If only the people signing the checks in Tampa felt the same way.

The Rays Are the Latest Team to Give Up on the 2018 Season

The latest MLB tank job takes us to Florida, but not the team you expected. The Marlins made national waves this winter for their teardown, in which their best players were shipped out of town to help new owners Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman pay off the franchise’s massive debts. But not to be outdone in terms of a Sunshine State sell-off, the Rays have spent the last week trying to catch up to Miami in terms of surrendering the season before it even begins.

To replace all of those outgoing names, the Rays have done … well, nothing. Tampa’s transaction log is a stream of departures with little in the way of additions. The team has signed a single major league free agent, bringing back veteran reliever Sergio Romo (UPDATE: This afternoon, the Rays added a second, reportedly coming to terms with outfielder Carlos Gomez on a one-year pact). Otherwise, the Rays have settled for inking no-name players to minor league contracts. That holds for the trades, too: Span and ex-Angels first baseman C.J. Cron are the only established major leaguers acquired so far, and both are far from what you’d call difference makers.

The result is a Rays team that, a few bright spots aside, will be bad (at best) in 2018. Where Morrison and Longoria and Dickerson and Souza were, Tampa will now turn to the forgettable likes of Cron, Brad Miller, Daniel Robertson, Matt Duffy, and Mallex Smith. With Odorizzi and Cobb gone, Chris Archer is the team’s only trustworthy starter. The bullpen is equally bereft of recognizable or reliable names beyond closer Alex Colome. In the rough-and-tumble AL East, Tampa stands virtually no chance with that sorry assemblage, despite its front office’s risible claims that the Rays will be competitive.

It’s a sad end for a franchise that was, at one point, the model of how to build a winner on a shoestring budget. The Rays could never compete with division rivals New York or Boston (or really anyone else) for top free agents, but Tampa kept motoring along, somehow stringing together winning seasons despite a payroll that would’ve been a rounding error for the Yankees. That all began to come crashing down in 2014, when the Rays slumped from 92 wins and a wild-card berth to 77 wins and fourth place in the AL East; they’ve missed the playoffs the last four years running.

It’s going to be a long time, most likely, until the Rays see the postseason again. But while contention was going to be a tough task in 2018 no matter what, it’s still startling to see how thoroughly they’ve given up on the season. There are tank jobs, and then there’s what Tampa’s front office has done, stripping the team of most of its best parts and leaving nothing but Archer, Colome, Kevin Kiermaier and some fringe major leaguers. What’s galling is how little the Rays have gotten in return for their firesale. Longoria returned two pitchers with big arms but likely bullpen futures and infielder Christian Arroyo, who has potential but was overwhelmed in the majors last year. Odorizzi returned a single player, a low-minors shortstop. Souza was worth two minor leaguers, both fine but neither a star. And Dickerson, an All-Star in 2017, may get the Rays nothing if they’re unable to work out a trade.

All of those players have their flaws—Longoria is aging and expensive, Odorizzi is coming off a mediocre year, Dickerson collapsed in the second half—but it’s still a sorry state of affairs to dump all those players for what amounts to a few lottery tickets. And while the Rays’ front office has made all the requisite noises about competing now and re-tooling for later, it’s hard not to look at this winter’s moves as a franchise punting on a season simply to save money. By selling off Longoria, Dickerson, Souza, and Odorizzi, the team cut roughly $30 million off its already anemic payroll; as it currently stands, Tampa’s financial commitments for 2018 are just around $73 million, a steep drop from last year’s $91 million figure. Amazingly enough, that $73 million mark—nearly $80 million below last year’s league average payroll—isn’t even the lowest in baseball currently. The White Sox ($70 million), Phillies ($67 million), and A’s ($59 million) are all below the Rays; the Pirates and Marlins aren’t far off.

Not every team can be the Dodgers, but it’s disheartening to see how many teams have refused to open their wallets this winter—and how shameless they’ve been about it. In an era of exploding revenues and where each owner was gifted a $50 million payment from MLB as part of its sale of BAMTech, there’s no excuse for the kind of penny-pinching we’re seeing. That’s especially the case for Tampa, which despite a weak offense went 80–82 last year and had the pieces in place, both in the majors and in a strong farm system, to contend for at least a wild-card spot, if ownership had agreed to spend this winter.

Instead, Rays fans will be gifted at-bats from Cron and Span, starts from Nate Eovaldi and Matt Andriese, and relief appearances from Triple A Durham’s most unexciting arms. They’ll watch as Longoria, who should have retired a Ray, instead tries to lift the Giants out of the doldrums. They’ll wait to see where Colome and Archer end up, either sometime this spring or at the trade deadline. They’ll wonder how long they’ll get to hold on to Blake Snell and Brent Honeywell and the rest of the team’s exciting young players, their clocks already ticking. And they’ll get the sales pitch from ownership for a gleaming new stadium in Tampa’s Ybor City—one that will likely cost taxpayers in Hillsborough County hundreds of millions of dollars to house the next group of players sold off when they get too expensive.

Rays fans deserved better. So do the fans of the Marlins, Pirates, A’s, and what feels like a dozen other teams who have openly stopped trying to field a competitive squad, choosing instead to slash payroll or simply not spend. Rob Manfred may not like the word “tanking,” but that’s what this is, plain and simple: a losing product designed to save money, not compete. The players know it and don’tlike it; the empty seats at Tropicana Field will be proof enough of how the fans feel. If only the people signing the checks in Tampa felt the same way.

Marlins counting on their oldest player to close

FILE - In this May 27, 2017, file photo, Miami Marlins relief pitcher Brad Ziegler delivers during the ninth inning of an interleague baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, in Miami. While the rebuilding Marlins must rely heavily on unproven youngsters this season, they'll count on their oldest player to get the last out. Sidewinding 38-year-old Brad Ziegler is part of a patchwork cast for Miami under new CEO Derek Jeter.(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

Harper said Monday he was shocked the Marlins traded their entire outfield during the offseason. He added that Miami could have become a formidable team by adding a couple of pitchers.

Harper joined a chorus of critics questioning the direction of the Marlins under new CEO Derek Jeter.

Mattingly emphasized on Tuesday that it's important to "take care of your own dugout" and said it's "not really [Harper's] place to comment on us."

"He doesn't really know what goes on over here," Mattingly said. "He may think he does. But he doesn't know what the discussions are. He doesn't know our players."

FILE - In this May 27, 2017, file photo, Miami Marlins relief pitcher Brad Ziegler delivers during the ninth inning of an interleague baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, in Miami. While the rebuilding Marlins must rely heavily on unproven youngsters this season, they'll count on their oldest player to get the last out. Sidewinding 38-year-old Brad Ziegler is part of a patchwork cast for Miami under new CEO Derek Jeter.(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FILE - In this May 27, 2017, file photo, Miami Marlins relief pitcher Brad Ziegler delivers during the ninth inning of an interleague baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, in Miami. While the rebuilding Marlins must rely heavily on unproven youngsters this season, they'll count on their oldest player to get the last out. Sidewinding 38-year-old Brad Ziegler is part of a patchwork cast for Miami under new CEO Derek Jeter.(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

The Offseason of Quarterback Movement: Early Guesses on Who Goes Where in Free Agency, Draft

Free agency is 24 years old. Since the dawn of it, I don’t remember a year (because there hasn’t been one) with the same combined level of depth at quarterback in the free market and in the draft.

It’s amazing, really. We could see four quarterbacks (Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield) picked in the top 10 in the April draft. By the end of April, six of the NFL’s 12 top-rated quarterbacks from 2017 could either move on or begin to be moved out by their teams.

Alex Smith (first, with a 104.7 rating) will be traded from Kansas City to Washington, and will sign a four-year contract extension when the new league year begins March 14 … Drew Brees (second, 103.9) will likely re-sign with the Saints, but he’s free to sign anywhere come the start of free agency on March 14 … Case Keenum (seventh, 98.3) hopes to parlay a career year into a starting job and multiyear contract … Philip Rivers (ninth, 96.0) turns 37 this year, and could see the Chargers draft his heir, even coming off a very good year … Josh McCown (11th, 94.5) will be 39 in July, but coming off a career year, he could keep the seat warm for the Jets or another team drafting a quarterback of the future … Kirk Cousins (12th, 93.9) will be the most attractive vet on the street—assuming Washington doesn’t try to franchise him and trade him, which is possible but not likely.

So, in my first column this winter looking ahead to the offseason, I’m going to do the impossible: guess where each available quarterback will land. On May 1, after free agency and the draft, we’ll all have a good laugh over this column. Because I’ll be wrong on the vast majority, and maybe all. But we’ll go in order, and we’ll go by need.

Again, what follows are my team-by-team best guesses. Send me your pros and cons and best counter-arguments, and I’ll use my mailbag this week to give you your say on who’s going where.

Desperate Need

Denver: Kirk Cousins. GM John Elway has made one mega-signing in his tenure: Peyton Manning, in 2012, when Elway was in desperate quarterback straits. To solve this problem again, I say Elway goes big. Cousins isn’t flawless, but he’s got seven or eight prime years left (he’s 29), and has put a premium on going somewhere he can win, somewhere with a good defense, and somewhere he can walk into the building every day excited about going to work. The Broncos, coming off a 5-11 year, haven’t had back-to-back losing seasons since 1971 and 1972, and my bet is on Elway, even at the ridiculous sum of something like $30 million a year, going hard after Cousins to make sure he doesn’t have to keep worrying about the position. In the last two years, Denver has employed the 23rd- and 29th-rated quarterback, Trevor Siemian. Elway’s had enough of mediocrity. One other thing that will play a role: Elway’s willingness to whack a couple of big-ticket defenders, Aqib Talib and Derek Wolfe, from a tight cap situation. It could play a role in clearing enough cap room to fit Cousins onto the roster.

Arizona: A.J. McCarron. This would, of course, break Hue Jackson’s heart. But I just think the alternatives for McCarron are these: Go to Cleveland, and risk the Browns drafting a quarterback high in the first round, and risk being in the same place he was in Cincinnati, behind Andy Dalton, for the next three or four years … or go to Arizona (or another spot that won’t draft a passer high) and be handed the starting job on a team with a playoff defense. Not a very tough choice in my mind. Of course, when you’re guessing, no choice is very hard. Also: I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arizona focus on Sam Bradford and pick a rookie in the first or second round to supplement him.

Cleveland: Sam Darnold and Sam Bradford. The reason Browns GM John Dorsey wanted Alex Smith, or even McCarron or another veteran, is because he wants to be competitive from the start this season. You sign Bradford because you know as long as he stays healthy (Ten days? Ten games?), he’s a top-12-caliber quarterback. But he’s played more than seven games in just two of the last five seasons, and so the Browns won’t be guaranteed anything except some sleepless nights if they sign Bradford. But no matter which veteran Cleveland gets (and McCarron is certainly a strong prospect here), Dorsey will backstop with a rookie, and Darnold, who needs a large dose of development, would be fine with a year or more of clipboard-holding.

New York Jets: Baker Mayfield and Josh McCown. To say that McCown made a positive impact on the Jets in his gap year would be a major understatement. He’s a selfless coach on the field, and he would love to spend 2018 doing what he tried to do in 2014 in Cleveland, when he was there to usher Johnny Manziel into the ranks of respectable NFL starter. We know what happened then, and it wasn’t McCown’s fault. Mayfield is a marvelous talent, if a bit of a wild colt. He’d be a great fit with McCown and new and imaginative offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates. And McCown can play (combined 90.8 rating over his last three seasons) until Mayfield’s ready. Now, here’s the other thing about the Jets. Everyone in the league knows they love Cousins, will hotly pursue Cousins, and could get Cousins. It would not surprise me at all. Bates would be a perfect teacher for him, because he has so much in common with his mentors in Washington, particularly Kyle Shanahan. So if I did this exercise two weeks from now, who knows? I could give Keenum to Denver and Cousins to the Jets.

Significant Need

New Orleans: Drew Brees and Luke Falk. I can’t see Brees, 39, going elsewhere. I see him playing out his last two or three years (or more) with Sean Payton, particularly with the Saints being on the cusp of another competitive run. Falk? Precision passer (69, 70, 67 percent accurate in his last three years at Washington State) who could use some development. You know who wouldn’t surprise me here? Tyrod Taylor. I think Payton could do very good things with him. By the way, I hear Payton loves Mayfield too. Hard to imagine, though, that Payton and GM Mickey Loomis could move up high enough from their first-round slot (27th overall) to get in position to get Mayfield.

New York Giants: Josh Allen. It could be Darnold or Josh Rosen too, obviously. Much smarter NFLers than me told me in the last few days that they think GM Dave Gettleman will pass on a quarterback to fill another major need at number two overall, and I don’t doubt it. But the Giants have a 37-year-old quarterback who has been average at best for the past six years, and I don’t see New York passing on a good quarterback crop when the chance to get the next long-termer is there. Allen’s the kind of big, strong, developmental player (though his accuracy could be a big issue) who would be a good pupil under Eli Manning and Pat Shurmur for the next couple of years. Or less.

Minnesota: Case Keenum and Teddy Bridgewater. This is too safe. I sort of hate it. Keenum will likely be more inclined to go somewhere with no summer competition for the starting job (Buffalo?), but he also knows his team intimately here, and he knows (or should know) how he’d flourish under new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo. Bridgewater … I have no idea. What do you make of a guy who hasn’t played for two years, and who was not a sure long-term thing the last time he played? Seems the comfort-level play for him would be to stay for an incentive-laden deal.

Buffalo: Josh Rosen. The musical chairs are getting scarce. This could be a McCarron, Keenum or Bradford spot too. If Denver gets Cousins, I could see Elway dealing his one (fifth overall) for Buffalo’s two first-round picks (21, 22) and another high pick this year or next—I could see Tampa Bay, Chicago, Oakland and San Francisco at seven through 10 in round one doing the same—to allow Buffalo to jump up and get a good quarterback prospect.

Need

New England: Kyle Lauletta. I write about the Pats and Lauletta later in the column. But this is a year New England has to do what it did in 2014: find the heir to Tom Brady, who turns 41 in August. I can see the future now. In February 2022, I’m writing this column, and I’m writing new Patriots head coach Josh McDaniels saying, “Well, we know Tom just won the MVP, and he looks great even though he’s 45, but we’ve got to look out for the future too.”

Jacksonville: Mason Rudolph. The Jags will say all the right things about Blake Bortles, and actually mean a few of them. But they’ve got to backstop the position. Rudolph should still be there late in round one.

Keeping Their Eyes Open

Baltimore: Lamar Jackson. Joe Flacco’s last three years: 20-22, 52 touchdowns, 40 picks. Meh. Time to look around, and the versatile Jackson could be a weapon even when he’s not an every-down quarterback.

Miami: Tyrod Taylor. Never know about Ryan Tannehill, from either an injury or a talent perspective. Taylor will fare well under mechanics specialist Adam Gase.

LA Chargers: Mike White. Wild guess. Good arm. The Chargers might find a third-rounder this year they believe is a good student of the game who could learn well from Philip Rivers for the next two or three years.

So Nick Foles stays in Philadelphia, Jacoby Brissett stays in Indianapolis. I think I’ve answered all your questions now. Also, if you’d like, I could advise you on some really great Lotto numbers I’ve got for tonight.

I get the Saquon Barkley hype. I don’t get picking a back that high

The recent history of rookie running backs suggests to me that picking Barkley, the Penn State star and very highly rated running back, in the top five would be … well, I won’t call it a mistake. Because a great player is a great player. But I am saying the history of this position shows a team might be much better off solving its needs at another position and getting the back later in the draft.

2017: Offensive rookie of the year Alvin Kamara was the 67th overall pick, the fifth back selected. NFL rushing champion Kareem Hunt was the 86th overall pick, the sixth back taken.

2016: Jordan Howard, the 10th back chosen and 150th overall pick, finished second in rushing as a rookie. The 13th back picked, Alex Collins, has developed into the Ravens’ number one and a stalwart back.

2015: Seventh running back picked: David Johnson (86th overall), who led the NFL in yards from scrimmage in 2016 with 2,118 … Thirteenth running back picked: Jay Ajayi, 149th overall.

ESPN’s Todd McShay has Barkley as his highest-rated player in the draft. “Adrian Peterson is the last back I gave a higher grade to,” McShay told me. “But I hear you. The question I would ask is, say I needed a pass-rusher—really needed one. Would I pass on [North Carolina State’s] Bradley Chubb to take Barkley in the top five, then try to get a rusher near the top of the second round? If you’re picking 33, 35, 38 [overall], I can tell you that you’ll have a chance to get a running back with a first-round grade who will be very productive for you. But the pass-rushers may be gone by then.”

I’m not ignoring the greatness of Ezekiel Elliott, Leonard Fournette and Todd Gurley, all of whom were top-10 picks and have played great. But the average overall pick for Kamara, Hunt and David Johnson—each of whom are either franchise backs or verging on that title—was number 80. I just think smart teams can solve franchise-player needs high in the first round elsewhere, and get a very good back down the line. History backs it up.

Any clues about the next Garoppolo for New England?

New England picks 31st, 41st or 42nd (it will be San Francisco’s pick, and a coin flip will determine which of these slots the Patriots will own) and 63rd. You’ve got to think sometime between 31 and 63, New England gets its new Garoppolo, the long-term replacement for Father Time, aka Tom Brady.

Todd McShay of ESPN thinks either Luke Falk of Washington State or Kyle Lauletta of Richmond could fit the bill for New England somewhere after the top 30 picks. McShay says: “Highly driven, very intelligent, accurate passers who both lived in the pocket, very good at going through their progressions. Lauletta has a slightly bigger arm, and he was impressive in how he carried himself at the Senior Bowl.”

The Senior Bowl is where each man got noticed. In 2014, A.J. McCarron dropped out of the Senior Bowl, and the first alternate at quarterback was Garoppolo, who hustled to Mobile after playing in the East-West game the previous Saturday. By week’s end, writing about the 10 most impressive in Senior Bowl practices, former NFL safety Matt Bowen listed Garoppolo as his most impressive player of the week. In 2018, Lauletta was an unheralded FCS player behind the more storied Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield. But Lauletta was the Senior Bowl’s biggest star, completing eight of 12 passes for 198 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Eric Edholm of Pro Football Weeklywrote about Lauletta at the Senior Bowl, and Lauletta told Edholm he’s been compared to Garoppolo a lot, and thinks he’d fit with the Patriots because he “processes information well.”

Whomever the Patriots pick—assuming it’s a draft choice they use to take their long-term development quarterback and heir to Brady—you can bet Josh McDaniels will have a lot to say about the process. It’s McDaniels whose head-coaching prospects could be tied most closely to the quarterback who succeeds Brady.

Good Job, Dolphins

After the murderous rampage that left 17 dead in Parkland, Fla., about 20 minutes from the Dolphins' training facility and offices in Davie, Fla., the Miami owner, Stephen Ross, authorized the donation of $100,000 to a GoFundMe page for the survivors of the mass shooting, pushing the charitable donations past $1 million. But that wasn't all the organization did.

The morning after the shootings, Miami's assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi felt he had to act. Rizzi, a former college assistant at Rutgers, used to recruit south Florida. He became friendly with a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High coach, Elliott Bonner, and another Douglas assistant, Aaron Feis. Rizzi stayed close to Bonner, and when he visited campus recently, Feis gave him a ride on a golf cart out out to see Bonner elsewhere on the expansive campus.

On the day of the shooting, Rizzi heard Feis’s name as one of the victims. He heard Feis might have been killed shielding a student or students. Rizzi felt sick about it. So at a staff meeting the morning after, he told the coaches he was taking up a collection for Feis’s widow, and anything they could do would be appreciated. As the day went on, others in the building heard about the collection, and Dolphins employees stopped by Rizzi's office. What blew him away was a couple of interns in the building handing him $10 and $20 toward the cause.

By the end of the day, Rizzi collected $17,500, and he drove to Parkland to give the money to Aaron Feis’s brother, Ray Feis. From some coaches to the family of another, it was a terrific gesture.

Quotes of the Week

I

“I think he will play in the major leagues.”

—Mets GM Sandy Alderson on Tim Tebow, who is in the team’s camp this spring, via Mike Puma of the New York Post. Tebow, 30, hit .226 in Single-A ball for the Mets in 2017.

II

“It starts off as a normal conversation and then it turns into tears. And I simply just say, ‘I understand. Trust me, I’ve been in Philly. I get it.’”

—Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles, on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” talking about meeting long-time fans of the Eagles who can’t quite muster the ability to have a normal conversation with the man who has delivered a dream,

III

“I think we’ve got a great young quarterback. I think that’s enough to be excited about. I think a lot of our center (Rodney Hudson). I think the quarterback-center battery is as good as I’ve ever had in football. I’m really excited about the two guards (Kelechi Osemele, Gabe Jackson), obviously. That’s the strength of this team.”

—Raiders coach Jon Gruden, to Jerry McDonald of Bay Area News Group.

IV

“There’s a sameness to the reaction of politicians to mass shootings. Especially if you are a politician who has received donations from the National Rifle Association.”

—CNN’s Anderson Cooper, after the slaughter of 17 people at a Florida high school last week.

V

“I calculated once how many times I fell during my skating career—41,600 times. But here’s the funny thing: I got up 41,600 times. That’s the muscle you have to build in your psyche: the one that reminds you to just get up.”

—Scott Hamilton to Juliet Macur of the New York Times, on how he reacted to being demoted from NBC’s number one skating analyst team at the Olympics, with the rise of Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski.

Scott, you’re the man.

Stat of the Week

Have I mentioned I love how the Steelers do business? Club chairman Art Rooney II shut down any talk of replacing coach Mike Tomlin soon after the season, despite the disappointing loss to the Jaguars in the playoffs—Pittsburgh’s second home defeat to Jacksonville in the 2017 season. Losses like that one are dispiriting, to be sure, but the Steelers are the Steelers. The 2018 season will complete a stunning half century of football. In those 50 seasons, Pittsburgh will have had three head coaches.

Now for the stat: Since the turn of the century, among active coaches who have coached at least five years, only three coaches have averaged more than 11 wins per season, including playoffs. And only two coaches have won 25 games or more in the last two seasons—Bill Belichick and Tomlin. The records of the three coaches with an average of 11 wins or more per season since 2000:

This is how long Sebastian Janikowski—whose 18-year tenure with the Raiders ended last week—has been playing pro football:

• The Raiders have had 21 head coaches in their 58-year history. Janikowski played for almost half—10—of them.

• In his rookie year, 2000, Janikowski was ninth in the NFL in scoring. Number 10 that year, Gary Anderson, is now 58 years old.

• Tom Brady was a third-string rookie (behind Drew Bledsoe and John Friesz) when Janikowski made his debut for Oakland on Labor Day Weekend 2000.

• In Janikowski’s first game in the NFL, the Raiders picked off Ryan Leaf three times and, despite sacks from Rodney Harrison and Junior Seau, Oakland beat San Diego 9-3.

• Playing in snow for the first time in his career in the Tuck Rule game in Foxboro on Jan. 19, 2002, Janikowski kicked field goals of 38 and 45 yards in the third quarter, giving the Raiders leads of 10-3 and 13-3 … before Adam Vinatieri’s significantly more famous 45-yard field goal on that snow-squalling evening.

III

Larry Fitzgerald, who has played 14 NFL seasons, had his best regular seasons in years 12, 13 and 14, with 109, 107 and 109 catches. He’ll play a 15th year in 2018.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note

Call this week’s entry “Turd of the Week.”

For Valentine’s Day dinner, my wife and I went to a restaurant in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, The Red Cat. We had a reservation for 6:15 and arrived about 6:10. In front of us when we entered the place: two men, 40ish, one of whom was asking if a table was available. We’re full, the fellow at the front said. One of the guys saw six or eight table in the restaurant that were unoccupied and asked if they could take any one of those. “Sir,” The Red Cat guy said, “it’s Valentine’s Day. We’re totally booked.” On and on the 40ish guy went. He would not take no for an answer. Couples gathered in the doorway. Finally, The Red Cat relented. “We’ll seat you,” he said.

To which the Turd of the Week turned to his acquaintance and said so that anyone within 20 feet could hear, “Can you believe that? I had to f---ing beg for a f---ing table!”

The idiot was seated, and then it was our turn. The poor Red Cat guy. Totally embarrassed, as he turned to us and was all professional and polite. But shaken. I thought, I’m glad I’m not on the front line of the restaurant business in New York City.

Tweets of the Week

I

The former NFL scout and current NFL and draft analyst, on the rumors flying about trades and free-agent signings and other NFL folderol 10 weeks before the draft. He followed with a tweet saying: “I think this year I’m going to keep a running scorecard on all ‘rumors’ on twitter (including mine). I think we’ll find out it’s about 90 percent fabricated nonsense.”

• Angelo, integral with NFL Films czar Steve Sabol to the invention of “Hard Knocks” in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens featured in the first season, on why it worked: “It worked because it was raw. After the first show, with all of that profanity out there, Steve was very concerned about the league office’s response to it. The second week, Steve told the editors to eliminate as much profanity as possible, because he was concerned about the league’s response. I would screen the show before it aired with the Ravens hierarchy, and after the first week—no issues at all … They couldn’t have cared less about the profanity. After the second show, [coach] Brian Billick looked at this watered-down show and he said, ‘Great show, Bob. But we need a few more gratuitous F-words in there.’ So I called Steve and said, ‘There’s no problem here with the profanity. Let it go. It’s raw, it’s real, this is what a pro football team sounds like in the summer.’ … From that point on, we could go anywhere we wanted, do anything we wanted to do.

“My wife, Barbara, and I had our niece living with us [in 2001], and she asked us one day, ‘What do you think is the best reality show on television?’ And I thought about it for a minute and said, ‘Mine. Because you don’t get voted off the island, you lose your job.’”

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think if you want to know why Larry Fitzgerald, who will return for a 15th season with a new coach and quarterback in 2018 in Arizona, should be judged as one of the best receivers ever—say, certainly in the top five—consider these nuggets:

• If he has a normal season in 2018 based on recent history, he’ll finish next year with about 200 more receptions than any wideout who ever played other than Rice, and with 500 or so more receiving yards than anyone who ever played, save Rice.

• Rice had Steve Young or Joe Montana as his quarterback in 85 percent of his career starts. Fitzgerald had Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer for 51 percent of his career starts.

• In the five seasons he’s played since turning 30, Fitzgerald has missed three games due to injury (all in 2014).

2. I think—and have for a year now—that 2017 was not going to be Fitzgerald’s last year. Too many footprints he wants to leave in the sand. When the NFL elects its 100th anniversary team in three years, my bet is that Fitzgerald, who has significant respect for history and loves to be a major part of it, would want badly to be one of the four wide receivers on that team. Who would they be? Just a guess: Don Hutson, Jerry Rice, Larry Fitzgerald, and either Steve Largent or Randy Moss. Could be different, of course, because the candidate list at that position will be very strong.

3. I think it appears interim Panthers general manager Marty Hurney is the favorite to take over the full-time Carolina GM job after being cleared by the NFL of harassment claims by his ex-wife. Which is the best decision the team could make. With Hurney free of the claims now, and judged innocent, his role as the favorite for the permanent job should not be affected.

4. I think the best news of the week was Ryan Shazier sitting in on scouting meetings with the Steelers. What happened to him was awful. What he could do with his life is powerful, whether in football or something else. Good for the Steelers, paving the way for him to transition to an off-field football life if that’s what Shazier chooses.

• The FOX deal is for 11 games a year, and it’s on Thursday nights, which means Manning could dip his toe in the water of TV without being married to it for a long season. Manning could be home every week in Denver by 3 a.m. Mountain Time Friday, and not leave again until Tuesday evening, if he chooses. And his work would be 11 weeks long, not 19 or 20 including playoffs.

• Manning, I believe, eventually wants to be an Elway or a Jeter, a guy who runs his own team. This would allow him to fact-find with good coaches and GMs for free, and allow him to see the teams that do it the right way and the teams that do it wrong. Jon Gruden can tell him how much you can learn by sitting in on productions meetings with the coaches and players you’ll either be trying to beat in a couple of years—or trying to hire.

• Though I don’t think Manning wants to be a TV guy, this is a low-commitment way that will allow him to find that out for sure.

6. I think it’s very hard for me to imagine Washington giving Kirk Cousins the franchise tag for one simple reason: When you put a franchise tag on a player, you intend to employ him at that rate of pay for the season. Washington intends to employ Alex Smith as it quarterback for 2018 and beyond. So if the team does tag Cousins, he would immediately file a grievance to block it, as our Albert Breer reported Thursday. And Cousins would win easily.

7. I think I read the rant of former WFAN talk-show host Mike Francesa about the Jason Kelce expletive-peppered speech during the Eagles’ Super Bowl celebration. The Francesa take (he was angry that Kelce cursed) is one of the most get-off-my-lawn things I’ve heard in a while. Said Francesa on WOR in New York: “You ever heard about winning like a champion? Somebody should have taken a hook and pulled him off … I was in the car when I heard it and people were replaying it like it was the greatest thing in the world. How dumb are you to replay that? I wouldn’t give that one second airtime … If I were the owner of the team, I’d cut him.” I do agree with Francesa that the cursing was over the top, and at time slightly cringe-inducing. But the rest—seriously?

8. I think, not that Francesa would know this, but Jason Kelce was the NFL’s first-team All-Pro center in 2017. He’s an unquestioned team leader. He’s got the 10th-highest salary-cap number for centers in 2018, which means he’s a player of great value. If Jeff Lurie cut Jason Kelce, players on that team would be beyond furious—as would coach Doug Pederson. Would the Eagles have been better with Kelce not f-bombing the speech? Of course. Cutting him? Knee-jerk to the max. But hey, it’s a hot take.

9. I think, not that it’s burrowing into the souls of every NFL or NBA fan, that it’s entirely fair for NBA commissioner Adam Silver to barter for the league to get 1 percent of the proceeds of all money legally wagered on the NBA. The NBA is providing the vehicle for the gambling to take place. Why shouldn’t it get a small cut? Same thing with the NFL, if that gambling is legalized in other states outside of Nevada.

10. I think these are my other thoughts of the week:

a. Commentary of the Week: From Dale Hansen of WFAA-TV in Dallas, on the Parkland school shooting. So much of what Hansen says, sensible Americans want to say—and hear.

b. Column of the Week: from Steve Politi of the Newark Star Ledger, localizing the Parkland tragedy with an apt column about high school coaches in the wake of the tragedy. Politi’s right: We’ve left it to untrained civilians to try to save our kids in schools from a horrible fate. “This is life now in this country,” he writes.

c. It’s so wonderful to see the classmates of the dead in Florida not just sitting home and crying—even though that would be the human thing to do. Instead, they’re coming together and demanding that our elected officials, particularly our president, stand up and do something, something real, to effect change about the gun violence in this country. They’re not waiting for Washington do something, because without being poked with a cattle prod, our leaders will hide and hide and hide and do nothing, and wait until the funerals for more students are over, then pretend it never happened. Listen to a classmate of the dead, Emma Gonzalez, on Saturday, at a rally with her friends, to protest the violence: “We are up here, standing together, because if all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it’s time for victims to be the change that we need to see.”

d. More Emma, who was wiping tears away as she spoke: “If us students have learned anything, it’s that if you don’t study, you will fail, and in this case, if you actively do nothing, people continually end up DEAD, SO IT’S TIME TO START DOING SOMETHING!”

f. How incredibly disheartening, but incredibly consistent, to see our elected officials serving the NRA with more loyalty than they serve their constituents. The only way to effect change is to never vote for an elected official who takes NRA money.

g. Nothing else feels important this week. But I will go on.

h. We wanted Michael Jordan to speak up about injustice, and we wanted Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter to do so too. They didn’t. Now LeBron James does, and Laura Ingraham of FOX tells him to shut up and stick to dribbling a basketball. That’s what I like about talking heads: They raise the level of dialogue in the country to something above kindergarten playground. But not much.

i. Kudos, WEEI, for trying to clean the place up.

j. Thanks, Ohio University, for the invitation to talk to a hall full of sports and non-sports journalism hopefuls Friday night. Always great to be back on the campus where I spent four happy and profitable and educational years—and met the woman of my dreams.

k. Walking up one side of Court Street, walking down the other side. Walking on College Green. What a time warp. Other than the Bagel Buggy being gone from the heart of town late on a Friday night, not much has changed in the last 40 years, since winter quarter of my junior year.

l. Coffeenerdness: How I knew I was in a college town early Saturday: I had to leave Athens about 7:15 a.m. for the 65-mile drive to Columbus to catch my plane home, and I wanted to get a coffee before driving 70 miles to the airport. The three coffee shops downtown weren’t open yet. Two of them opened at 8.

m. Beernerdness: Very cool brew pub in uptown Athens that wasn’t there the last time I was: Jackie O’s, right next to my old bar, the Union. Great to see it crowded with townies and students alike Friday afternoon and evening, and great to be able to share a beer with some of the students from The Post, our venerable student paper, and then a drink with some of the organizers of the journalism weekend. It’s been a long time since I saw one of my old buddies from the Cincinnati Enquirer, Justice B. Hill, who’s on the front lines at Ohio U., teaching writing and reporting the way it has to be taught. Really enjoyed the whole scene.

n. Something redemptive and rewarding about Nathan Chen skating wonderfully in the long program Friday night. Loved seeing that.

o. Hey Lindsay Vonn: Don’t listen to anyone dogging you about your skiing. You’ve been a heck of a champion.

p. I sat for two hours late Saturday afternoon, vegging out and watching curling. It’s a hypnotic sport. After a while, you get the strategy, and you’re into it.

The Adieu Haiku

Once upon a timein America, we caredabout mass murder.

The Offseason of Quarterback Movement: Early Guesses on Who Goes Where in Free Agency, Draft

Free agency is 24 years old. Since the dawn of it, I don’t remember a year (because there hasn’t been one) with the same combined level of depth at quarterback in the free market and in the draft.

It’s amazing, really. We could see four quarterbacks (Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield) picked in the top 10 in the April draft. By the end of April, six of the NFL’s 12 top-rated quarterbacks from 2017 could either move on or begin to be moved out by their teams.

Alex Smith (first, with a 104.7 rating) will be traded from Kansas City to Washington, and will sign a four-year contract extension when the new league year begins March 14 … Drew Brees (second, 103.9) will likely re-sign with the Saints, but he’s free to sign anywhere come the start of free agency on March 14 … Case Keenum (seventh, 98.3) hopes to parlay a career year into a starting job and multiyear contract … Philip Rivers (ninth, 96.0) turns 37 this year, and could see the Chargers draft his heir, even coming off a very good year … Josh McCown (11th, 94.5) will be 39 in July, but coming off a career year, he could keep the seat warm for the Jets or another team drafting a quarterback of the future … Kirk Cousins (12th, 93.9) will be the most attractive vet on the street—assuming Washington doesn’t try to franchise him and trade him, which is possible but not likely.

So, in my first column this winter looking ahead to the offseason, I’m going to do the impossible: guess where each available quarterback will land. On May 1, after free agency and the draft, we’ll all have a good laugh over this column. Because I’ll be wrong on the vast majority, and maybe all. But we’ll go in order, and we’ll go by need.

Again, what follows are my team-by-team best guesses. Send me your pros and cons and best counter-arguments, and I’ll use my mailbag this week to give you your say on who’s going where.

Desperate Need

Denver: Kirk Cousins. GM John Elway has made one mega-signing in his tenure: Peyton Manning, in 2012, when Elway was in desperate quarterback straits. To solve this problem again, I say Elway goes big. Cousins isn’t flawless, but he’s got seven or eight prime years left (he’s 29), and has put a premium on going somewhere he can win, somewhere with a good defense, and somewhere he can walk into the building every day excited about going to work. The Broncos, coming off a 5-11 year, haven’t had back-to-back losing seasons since 1971 and 1972, and my bet is on Elway, even at the ridiculous sum of something like $30 million a year, going hard after Cousins to make sure he doesn’t have to keep worrying about the position. In the last two years, Denver has employed the 23rd- and 29th-rated quarterback, Trevor Siemian. Elway’s had enough of mediocrity. One other thing that will play a role: Elway’s willingness to whack a couple of big-ticket defenders, Aqib Talib and Derek Wolfe, from a tight cap situation. It could play a role in clearing enough cap room to fit Cousins onto the roster.

Arizona: A.J. McCarron. This would, of course, break Hue Jackson’s heart. But I just think the alternatives for McCarron are these: Go to Cleveland, and risk the Browns drafting a quarterback high in the first round, and risk being in the same place he was in Cincinnati, behind Andy Dalton, for the next three or four years … or go to Arizona (or another spot that won’t draft a passer high) and be handed the starting job on a team with a playoff defense. Not a very tough choice in my mind. Of course, when you’re guessing, no choice is very hard. Also: I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arizona focus on Sam Bradford and pick a rookie in the first or second round to supplement him.

Cleveland: Sam Darnold and Sam Bradford. The reason Browns GM John Dorsey wanted Alex Smith, or even McCarron or another veteran, is because he wants to be competitive from the start this season. You sign Bradford because you know as long as he stays healthy (Ten days? Ten games?), he’s a top-12-caliber quarterback. But he’s played more than seven games in just two of the last five seasons, and so the Browns won’t be guaranteed anything except some sleepless nights if they sign Bradford. But no matter which veteran Cleveland gets (and McCarron is certainly a strong prospect here), Dorsey will backstop with a rookie, and Darnold, who needs a large dose of development, would be fine with a year or more of clipboard-holding.

New York Jets: Baker Mayfield and Josh McCown. To say that McCown made a positive impact on the Jets in his gap year would be a major understatement. He’s a selfless coach on the field, and he would love to spend 2018 doing what he tried to do in 2014 in Cleveland, when he was there to usher Johnny Manziel into the ranks of respectable NFL starter. We know what happened then, and it wasn’t McCown’s fault. Mayfield is a marvelous talent, if a bit of a wild colt. He’d be a great fit with McCown and new and imaginative offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates. And McCown can play (combined 90.8 rating over his last three seasons) until Mayfield’s ready. Now, here’s the other thing about the Jets. Everyone in the league knows they love Cousins, will hotly pursue Cousins, and could get Cousins. It would not surprise me at all. Bates would be a perfect teacher for him, because he has so much in common with his mentors in Washington, particularly Kyle Shanahan. So if I did this exercise two weeks from now, who knows? I could give Keenum to Denver and Cousins to the Jets.

Significant Need

New Orleans: Drew Brees and Luke Falk. I can’t see Brees, 39, going elsewhere. I see him playing out his last two or three years (or more) with Sean Payton, particularly with the Saints being on the cusp of another competitive run. Falk? Precision passer (69, 70, 67 percent accurate in his last three years at Washington State) who could use some development. You know who wouldn’t surprise me here? Tyrod Taylor. I think Payton could do very good things with him. By the way, I hear Payton loves Mayfield too. Hard to imagine, though, that Payton and GM Mickey Loomis could move up high enough from their first-round slot (27th overall) to get in position to get Mayfield.

New York Giants: Josh Allen. It could be Darnold or Josh Rosen too, obviously. Much smarter NFLers than me told me in the last few days that they think GM Dave Gettleman will pass on a quarterback to fill another major need at number two overall, and I don’t doubt it. But the Giants have a 37-year-old quarterback who has been average at best for the past six years, and I don’t see New York passing on a good quarterback crop when the chance to get the next long-termer is there. Allen’s the kind of big, strong, developmental player (though his accuracy could be a big issue) who would be a good pupil under Eli Manning and Pat Shurmur for the next couple of years. Or less.

Minnesota: Case Keenum and Teddy Bridgewater. This is too safe. I sort of hate it. Keenum will likely be more inclined to go somewhere with no summer competition for the starting job (Buffalo?), but he also knows his team intimately here, and he knows (or should know) how he’d flourish under new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo. Bridgewater … I have no idea. What do you make of a guy who hasn’t played for two years, and who was not a sure long-term thing the last time he played? Seems the comfort-level play for him would be to stay for an incentive-laden deal.

Buffalo: Josh Rosen. The musical chairs are getting scarce. This could be a McCarron, Keenum or Bradford spot too. If Denver gets Cousins, I could see Elway dealing his one (fifth overall) for Buffalo’s two first-round picks (21, 22) and another high pick this year or next—I could see Tampa Bay, Chicago, Oakland and San Francisco at seven through 10 in round one doing the same—to allow Buffalo to jump up and get a good quarterback prospect.

Need

New England: Kyle Lauletta. I write about the Pats and Lauletta later in the column. But this is a year New England has to do what it did in 2014: find the heir to Tom Brady, who turns 41 in August. I can see the future now. In February 2022, I’m writing this column, and I’m writing new Patriots head coach Josh McDaniels saying, “Well, we know Tom just won the MVP, and he looks great even though he’s 45, but we’ve got to look out for the future too.”

Jacksonville: Mason Rudolph. The Jags will say all the right things about Blake Bortles, and actually mean a few of them. But they’ve got to backstop the position. Rudolph should still be there late in round one.

Keeping Their Eyes Open

Baltimore: Lamar Jackson. Joe Flacco’s last three years: 20-22, 52 touchdowns, 40 picks. Meh. Time to look around, and the versatile Jackson could be a weapon even when he’s not an every-down quarterback.

Miami: Tyrod Taylor. Never know about Ryan Tannehill, from either an injury or a talent perspective. Taylor will fare well under mechanics specialist Adam Gase.

LA Chargers: Mike White. Wild guess. Good arm. The Chargers might find a third-rounder this year they believe is a good student of the game who could learn well from Philip Rivers for the next two or three years.

So Nick Foles stays in Philadelphia, Jacoby Brissett stays in Indianapolis. I think I’ve answered all your questions now. Also, if you’d like, I could advise you on some really great Lotto numbers I’ve got for tonight.

I get the Saquon Barkley hype. I don’t get picking a back that high

The recent history of rookie running backs suggests to me that picking Barkley, the Penn State star and very highly rated running back, in the top five would be … well, I won’t call it a mistake. Because a great player is a great player. But I am saying the history of this position shows a team might be much better off solving its needs at another position and getting the back later in the draft.

2017: Offensive rookie of the year Alvin Kamara was the 67th overall pick, the fifth back selected. NFL rushing champion Kareem Hunt was the 86th overall pick, the sixth back taken.

2016: Jordan Howard, the 10th back chosen and 150th overall pick, finished second in rushing as a rookie. The 13th back picked, Alex Collins, has developed into the Ravens’ number one and a stalwart back.

2015: Seventh running back picked: David Johnson (86th overall), who led the NFL in yards from scrimmage in 2016 with 2,118 … Thirteenth running back picked: Jay Ajayi, 149th overall.

ESPN’s Todd McShay has Barkley as his highest-rated player in the draft. “Adrian Peterson is the last back I gave a higher grade to,” McShay told me. “But I hear you. The question I would ask is, say I needed a pass-rusher—really needed one. Would I pass on [North Carolina State’s] Bradley Chubb to take Barkley in the top five, then try to get a rusher near the top of the second round? If you’re picking 33, 35, 38 [overall], I can tell you that you’ll have a chance to get a running back with a first-round grade who will be very productive for you. But the pass-rushers may be gone by then.”

I’m not ignoring the greatness of Ezekiel Elliott, Leonard Fournette and Todd Gurley, all of whom were top-10 picks and have played great. But the average overall pick for Kamara, Hunt and David Johnson—each of whom are either franchise backs or verging on that title—was number 80. I just think smart teams can solve franchise-player needs high in the first round elsewhere, and get a very good back down the line. History backs it up.

Any clues about the next Garoppolo for New England?

New England picks 31st, 41st or 42nd (it will be San Francisco’s pick, and a coin flip will determine which of these slots the Patriots will own) and 63rd. You’ve got to think sometime between 31 and 63, New England gets its new Garoppolo, the long-term replacement for Father Time, aka Tom Brady.

Todd McShay of ESPN thinks either Luke Falk of Washington State or Kyle Lauletta of Richmond could fit the bill for New England somewhere after the top 30 picks. McShay says: “Highly driven, very intelligent, accurate passers who both lived in the pocket, very good at going through their progressions. Lauletta has a slightly bigger arm, and he was impressive in how he carried himself at the Senior Bowl.”

The Senior Bowl is where each man got noticed. In 2014, A.J. McCarron dropped out of the Senior Bowl, and the first alternate at quarterback was Garoppolo, who hustled to Mobile after playing in the East-West game the previous Saturday. By week’s end, writing about the 10 most impressive in Senior Bowl practices, former NFL safety Matt Bowen listed Garoppolo as his most impressive player of the week. In 2018, Lauletta was an unheralded FCS player behind the more storied Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield. But Lauletta was the Senior Bowl’s biggest star, completing eight of 12 passes for 198 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Eric Edholm of Pro Football Weeklywrote about Lauletta at the Senior Bowl, and Lauletta told Edholm he’s been compared to Garoppolo a lot, and thinks he’d fit with the Patriots because he “processes information well.”

Whomever the Patriots pick—assuming it’s a draft choice they use to take their long-term development quarterback and heir to Brady—you can bet Josh McDaniels will have a lot to say about the process. It’s McDaniels whose head-coaching prospects could be tied most closely to the quarterback who succeeds Brady.

Good Job, Dolphins

After the murderous rampage that left 17 dead in Parkland, Fla., about 20 minutes from the Dolphins' training facility and offices in Davie, Fla., the Miami owner, Stephen Ross, authorized the donation of $100,000 to a GoFundMe page for the survivors of the mass shooting, pushing the charitable donations past $1 million. But that wasn't all the organization did.

The morning after the shootings, Miami's assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi felt he had to act. Rizzi, a former college assistant at Rutgers, used to recruit south Florida. He became friendly with a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High coach, Elliott Bonner, and another Douglas assistant, Aaron Feis. Rizzi stayed close to Bonner, and when he visited campus recently, Feis gave him a ride on a golf cart out out to see Bonner elsewhere on the expansive campus.

On the day of the shooting, Rizzi heard Feis’s name as one of the victims. He heard Feis might have been killed shielding a student or students. Rizzi felt sick about it. So at a staff meeting the morning after, he told the coaches he was taking up a collection for Feis’s widow, and anything they could do would be appreciated. As the day went on, others in the building heard about the collection, and Dolphins employees stopped by Rizzi's office. What blew him away was a couple of interns in the building handing him $10 and $20 toward the cause.

By the end of the day, Rizzi collected $17,500, and he drove to Parkland to give the money to Aaron Feis’s brother, Ray Feis. From some coaches to the family of another, it was a terrific gesture.

Quotes of the Week

I

“I think he will play in the major leagues.”

—Mets GM Sandy Alderson on Tim Tebow, who is in the team’s camp this spring, via Mike Puma of the New York Post. Tebow, 30, hit .226 in Single-A ball for the Mets in 2017.

II

“It starts off as a normal conversation and then it turns into tears. And I simply just say, ‘I understand. Trust me, I’ve been in Philly. I get it.’”

—Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles, on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” talking about meeting long-time fans of the Eagles who can’t quite muster the ability to have a normal conversation with the man who has delivered a dream,

III

“I think we’ve got a great young quarterback. I think that’s enough to be excited about. I think a lot of our center (Rodney Hudson). I think the quarterback-center battery is as good as I’ve ever had in football. I’m really excited about the two guards (Kelechi Osemele, Gabe Jackson), obviously. That’s the strength of this team.”

—Raiders coach Jon Gruden, to Jerry McDonald of Bay Area News Group.

IV

“There’s a sameness to the reaction of politicians to mass shootings. Especially if you are a politician who has received donations from the National Rifle Association.”

—CNN’s Anderson Cooper, after the slaughter of 17 people at a Florida high school last week.

V

“I calculated once how many times I fell during my skating career—41,600 times. But here’s the funny thing: I got up 41,600 times. That’s the muscle you have to build in your psyche: the one that reminds you to just get up.”

—Scott Hamilton to Juliet Macur of the New York Times, on how he reacted to being demoted from NBC’s number one skating analyst team at the Olympics, with the rise of Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski.

Scott, you’re the man.

Stat of the Week

Have I mentioned I love how the Steelers do business? Club chairman Art Rooney II shut down any talk of replacing coach Mike Tomlin soon after the season, despite the disappointing loss to the Jaguars in the playoffs—Pittsburgh’s second home defeat to Jacksonville in the 2017 season. Losses like that one are dispiriting, to be sure, but the Steelers are the Steelers. The 2018 season will complete a stunning half century of football. In those 50 seasons, Pittsburgh will have had three head coaches.

Now for the stat: Since the turn of the century, among active coaches who have coached at least five years, only three coaches have averaged more than 11 wins per season, including playoffs. And only two coaches have won 25 games or more in the last two seasons—Bill Belichick and Tomlin. The records of the three coaches with an average of 11 wins or more per season since 2000:

This is how long Sebastian Janikowski—whose 18-year tenure with the Raiders ended last week—has been playing pro football:

• The Raiders have had 21 head coaches in their 58-year history. Janikowski played for almost half—10—of them.

• In his rookie year, 2000, Janikowski was ninth in the NFL in scoring. Number 10 that year, Gary Anderson, is now 58 years old.

• Tom Brady was a third-string rookie (behind Drew Bledsoe and John Friesz) when Janikowski made his debut for Oakland on Labor Day Weekend 2000.

• In Janikowski’s first game in the NFL, the Raiders picked off Ryan Leaf three times and, despite sacks from Rodney Harrison and Junior Seau, Oakland beat San Diego 9-3.

• Playing in snow for the first time in his career in the Tuck Rule game in Foxboro on Jan. 19, 2002, Janikowski kicked field goals of 38 and 45 yards in the third quarter, giving the Raiders leads of 10-3 and 13-3 … before Adam Vinatieri’s significantly more famous 45-yard field goal on that snow-squalling evening.

III

Larry Fitzgerald, who has played 14 NFL seasons, had his best regular seasons in years 12, 13 and 14, with 109, 107 and 109 catches. He’ll play a 15th year in 2018.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note

Call this week’s entry “Turd of the Week.”

For Valentine’s Day dinner, my wife and I went to a restaurant in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, The Red Cat. We had a reservation for 6:15 and arrived about 6:10. In front of us when we entered the place: two men, 40ish, one of whom was asking if a table was available. We’re full, the fellow at the front said. One of the guys saw six or eight table in the restaurant that were unoccupied and asked if they could take any one of those. “Sir,” The Red Cat guy said, “it’s Valentine’s Day. We’re totally booked.” On and on the 40ish guy went. He would not take no for an answer. Couples gathered in the doorway. Finally, The Red Cat relented. “We’ll seat you,” he said.

To which the Turd of the Week turned to his acquaintance and said so that anyone within 20 feet could hear, “Can you believe that? I had to f---ing beg for a f---ing table!”

The idiot was seated, and then it was our turn. The poor Red Cat guy. Totally embarrassed, as he turned to us and was all professional and polite. But shaken. I thought, I’m glad I’m not on the front line of the restaurant business in New York City.

Tweets of the Week

I

The former NFL scout and current NFL and draft analyst, on the rumors flying about trades and free-agent signings and other NFL folderol 10 weeks before the draft. He followed with a tweet saying: “I think this year I’m going to keep a running scorecard on all ‘rumors’ on twitter (including mine). I think we’ll find out it’s about 90 percent fabricated nonsense.”

• Angelo, integral with NFL Films czar Steve Sabol to the invention of “Hard Knocks” in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens featured in the first season, on why it worked: “It worked because it was raw. After the first show, with all of that profanity out there, Steve was very concerned about the league office’s response to it. The second week, Steve told the editors to eliminate as much profanity as possible, because he was concerned about the league’s response. I would screen the show before it aired with the Ravens hierarchy, and after the first week—no issues at all … They couldn’t have cared less about the profanity. After the second show, [coach] Brian Billick looked at this watered-down show and he said, ‘Great show, Bob. But we need a few more gratuitous F-words in there.’ So I called Steve and said, ‘There’s no problem here with the profanity. Let it go. It’s raw, it’s real, this is what a pro football team sounds like in the summer.’ … From that point on, we could go anywhere we wanted, do anything we wanted to do.

“My wife, Barbara, and I had our niece living with us [in 2001], and she asked us one day, ‘What do you think is the best reality show on television?’ And I thought about it for a minute and said, ‘Mine. Because you don’t get voted off the island, you lose your job.’”

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think if you want to know why Larry Fitzgerald, who will return for a 15th season with a new coach and quarterback in 2018 in Arizona, should be judged as one of the best receivers ever—say, certainly in the top five—consider these nuggets:

• If he has a normal season in 2018 based on recent history, he’ll finish next year with about 200 more receptions than any wideout who ever played other than Rice, and with 500 or so more receiving yards than anyone who ever played, save Rice.

• Rice had Steve Young or Joe Montana as his quarterback in 85 percent of his career starts. Fitzgerald had Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer for 51 percent of his career starts.

• In the five seasons he’s played since turning 30, Fitzgerald has missed three games due to injury (all in 2014).

2. I think—and have for a year now—that 2017 was not going to be Fitzgerald’s last year. Too many footprints he wants to leave in the sand. When the NFL elects its 100th anniversary team in three years, my bet is that Fitzgerald, who has significant respect for history and loves to be a major part of it, would want badly to be one of the four wide receivers on that team. Who would they be? Just a guess: Don Hutson, Jerry Rice, Larry Fitzgerald, and either Steve Largent or Randy Moss. Could be different, of course, because the candidate list at that position will be very strong.

3. I think it appears interim Panthers general manager Marty Hurney is the favorite to take over the full-time Carolina GM job after being cleared by the NFL of harassment claims by his ex-wife. Which is the best decision the team could make. With Hurney free of the claims now, and judged innocent, his role as the favorite for the permanent job should not be affected.

4. I think the best news of the week was Ryan Shazier sitting in on scouting meetings with the Steelers. What happened to him was awful. What he could do with his life is powerful, whether in football or something else. Good for the Steelers, paving the way for him to transition to an off-field football life if that’s what Shazier chooses.

• The FOX deal is for 11 games a year, and it’s on Thursday nights, which means Manning could dip his toe in the water of TV without being married to it for a long season. Manning could be home every week in Denver by 3 a.m. Mountain Time Friday, and not leave again until Tuesday evening, if he chooses. And his work would be 11 weeks long, not 19 or 20 including playoffs.

• Manning, I believe, eventually wants to be an Elway or a Jeter, a guy who runs his own team. This would allow him to fact-find with good coaches and GMs for free, and allow him to see the teams that do it the right way and the teams that do it wrong. Jon Gruden can tell him how much you can learn by sitting in on productions meetings with the coaches and players you’ll either be trying to beat in a couple of years—or trying to hire.

• Though I don’t think Manning wants to be a TV guy, this is a low-commitment way that will allow him to find that out for sure.

6. I think it’s very hard for me to imagine Washington giving Kirk Cousins the franchise tag for one simple reason: When you put a franchise tag on a player, you intend to employ him at that rate of pay for the season. Washington intends to employ Alex Smith as it quarterback for 2018 and beyond. So if the team does tag Cousins, he would immediately file a grievance to block it, as our Albert Breer reported Thursday. And Cousins would win easily.

7. I think I read the rant of former WFAN talk-show host Mike Francesa about the Jason Kelce expletive-peppered speech during the Eagles’ Super Bowl celebration. The Francesa take (he was angry that Kelce cursed) is one of the most get-off-my-lawn things I’ve heard in a while. Said Francesa on WOR in New York: “You ever heard about winning like a champion? Somebody should have taken a hook and pulled him off … I was in the car when I heard it and people were replaying it like it was the greatest thing in the world. How dumb are you to replay that? I wouldn’t give that one second airtime … If I were the owner of the team, I’d cut him.” I do agree with Francesa that the cursing was over the top, and at time slightly cringe-inducing. But the rest—seriously?

8. I think, not that Francesa would know this, but Jason Kelce was the NFL’s first-team All-Pro center in 2017. He’s an unquestioned team leader. He’s got the 10th-highest salary-cap number for centers in 2018, which means he’s a player of great value. If Jeff Lurie cut Jason Kelce, players on that team would be beyond furious—as would coach Doug Pederson. Would the Eagles have been better with Kelce not f-bombing the speech? Of course. Cutting him? Knee-jerk to the max. But hey, it’s a hot take.

9. I think, not that it’s burrowing into the souls of every NFL or NBA fan, that it’s entirely fair for NBA commissioner Adam Silver to barter for the league to get 1 percent of the proceeds of all money legally wagered on the NBA. The NBA is providing the vehicle for the gambling to take place. Why shouldn’t it get a small cut? Same thing with the NFL, if that gambling is legalized in other states outside of Nevada.

10. I think these are my other thoughts of the week:

a. Commentary of the Week: From Dale Hansen of WFAA-TV in Dallas, on the Parkland school shooting. So much of what Hansen says, sensible Americans want to say—and hear.

b. Column of the Week: from Steve Politi of the Newark Star Ledger, localizing the Parkland tragedy with an apt column about high school coaches in the wake of the tragedy. Politi’s right: We’ve left it to untrained civilians to try to save our kids in schools from a horrible fate. “This is life now in this country,” he writes.

c. It’s so wonderful to see the classmates of the dead in Florida not just sitting home and crying—even though that would be the human thing to do. Instead, they’re coming together and demanding that our elected officials, particularly our president, stand up and do something, something real, to effect change about the gun violence in this country. They’re not waiting for Washington do something, because without being poked with a cattle prod, our leaders will hide and hide and hide and do nothing, and wait until the funerals for more students are over, then pretend it never happened. Listen to a classmate of the dead, Emma Gonzalez, on Saturday, at a rally with her friends, to protest the violence: “We are up here, standing together, because if all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it’s time for victims to be the change that we need to see.”

d. More Emma, who was wiping tears away as she spoke: “If us students have learned anything, it’s that if you don’t study, you will fail, and in this case, if you actively do nothing, people continually end up DEAD, SO IT’S TIME TO START DOING SOMETHING!”

f. How incredibly disheartening, but incredibly consistent, to see our elected officials serving the NRA with more loyalty than they serve their constituents. The only way to effect change is to never vote for an elected official who takes NRA money.

g. Nothing else feels important this week. But I will go on.

h. We wanted Michael Jordan to speak up about injustice, and we wanted Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter to do so too. They didn’t. Now LeBron James does, and Laura Ingraham of FOX tells him to shut up and stick to dribbling a basketball. That’s what I like about talking heads: They raise the level of dialogue in the country to something above kindergarten playground. But not much.

i. Kudos, WEEI, for trying to clean the place up.

j. Thanks, Ohio University, for the invitation to talk to a hall full of sports and non-sports journalism hopefuls Friday night. Always great to be back on the campus where I spent four happy and profitable and educational years—and met the woman of my dreams.

k. Walking up one side of Court Street, walking down the other side. Walking on College Green. What a time warp. Other than the Bagel Buggy being gone from the heart of town late on a Friday night, not much has changed in the last 40 years, since winter quarter of my junior year.

l. Coffeenerdness: How I knew I was in a college town early Saturday: I had to leave Athens about 7:15 a.m. for the 65-mile drive to Columbus to catch my plane home, and I wanted to get a coffee before driving 70 miles to the airport. The three coffee shops downtown weren’t open yet. Two of them opened at 8.

m. Beernerdness: Very cool brew pub in uptown Athens that wasn’t there the last time I was: Jackie O’s, right next to my old bar, the Union. Great to see it crowded with townies and students alike Friday afternoon and evening, and great to be able to share a beer with some of the students from The Post, our venerable student paper, and then a drink with some of the organizers of the journalism weekend. It’s been a long time since I saw one of my old buddies from the Cincinnati Enquirer, Justice B. Hill, who’s on the front lines at Ohio U., teaching writing and reporting the way it has to be taught. Really enjoyed the whole scene.

n. Something redemptive and rewarding about Nathan Chen skating wonderfully in the long program Friday night. Loved seeing that.

o. Hey Lindsay Vonn: Don’t listen to anyone dogging you about your skiing. You’ve been a heck of a champion.

p. I sat for two hours late Saturday afternoon, vegging out and watching curling. It’s a hypnotic sport. After a while, you get the strategy, and you’re into it.

The Adieu Haiku

Once upon a timein America, we caredabout mass murder.

In Signing Flawed Hosmer, Padres Make a Statement About Their Future

In many ways, San Diego should be the easiest sell in free agency. The weather is perfect, with a very nice annual temperature of 69 degrees. Rain is an afterthought: The city sees an average of just 10–15 inches of precipitation per year (or a fourth of what Seattle gets), and for every day of rain, San Diegans get roughly nine of sun. The nightlife is plentiful and centered right outside Petco Park in the Gaslamp Quarter. There are beautiful beaches and parks. And for those who want to escape expectations, the media presence is light, and the national spotlight non-existent. When MLB players finally get their choice of where they want to sign, it’s amazing that all of them don’t have San Diego at the top of their lists.

But for as appealing as the city is, the franchise that calls it home is anything but. Apart from a few years here and there, the Padres have been the definition of irrelevant since coming into being 50 years ago, and for the last two seasons, they’ve tested the limits of just how far a team can bottom out before it ceases to be a major league enterprise. Following the implosion of general manager A.J. Preller’s manic winter spending spree after the 2014 season—when, newly in charge, he acquired Matt Kemp, Wil Myers, Justin Upton and Craig Kimbrel, only to watch his new super-team lose 88 games—San Diego settled into the NL West basement. All of those players aside from Myers are gone, as is any sense of competition, with the Padres losing 94 and 91 games the last two years. All that while, Preller has committed to a path of bargain shopping, steering entirely clear of free agency and trading away virtually anyone making anywhere north of the league minimum. San Diego might be paradise, but the Padres were no player’s idea of a destination.

There was no reason to think that was going to change any time soon, even despite the Padres having one of baseball’s best farm systems. But late Saturday night, with spring training already underway, San Diego suddenly swerved, signing free-agent first baseman Eric Hosmer, formerly of the Royals, to an eight-year contract worth $144 million. At first glance, it’s a curious move: The expenditure—the largest contract handed out in franchise history—doesn’t vault the Padres into the ranks of the NL’s best, given how many holes still litter their roster, and Hosmer is perhaps this winter’s most polarizing player. So why has San Diego broken its long offseason slumber, especially with the team nowhere near contention, to lavish record money on Hosmer?

It helps that, to a certain degree, Hosmer is a bargain. Plenty of people will look at a $144 million guarantee and laugh at the idea of that much money being anything but a wild overpay. But by frontloading money and giving Hosmer an opt-out after the 2022 season, the Padres have made the numbers work in their favor. In the first five years of his deal, Hosmer will be paid $21 million annually; the last three are worth roughly $13 million a piece. In other words, the Padres have Hosmer first on a five-year, $106 million contract—a pact that neither breaks the bank nor is particularly risky or crazy. Then, he either leaves or accepts a three-year, $39 million deal to stay—again, not a financial outlay that will bankrupt a Padres team with barely any long-term commitments on the books.

Hosmer’s youth is another point in the Padres’ favor. This isn’t your typical big free-agent contract, handed out to a player on the wrong side of 30; Hosmer is just 28 years old and won’t turn 29 until late October. He’ll be 33 when he reaches his opt-out, and even if he chooses not to take it, a first baseman in his mid-30s making $13 million a year is neither extravagant nor deleterious to a team’s hopes.

Nor have the Padres bought themselves a lemon. The third pick of the 2008 draft, Hosmer put together his best offensive season in 2017, setting career highs in all three slash stats and OPS+ (132) and tying his personal best in home runs with 25. Defensively, he has the stamp of approval from the rest of the league, as he took home his fourth Gold Glove last year. He’s durable, having played fewer than 152 games in a season just once since his rookie year in 2011. And as far as off-the-field stuff goes, he brings the entire complement: Throw a dart at the intangibles board, and you’re guaranteed to hit a quality that Hosmer has in spades (“leader,” “gritty,” “hard-working,” “plays the game the right way,” “championship attitude,” and plenty of other accolades that Derek Jeter trademarked 20 years ago).

But for as brilliant a player as Hosmer looks, it’s hard not to feel disappointed with what he’s produced. Despite all those career highs, he put up just 4.0 WAR last year—a fine number, but nowhere near elite first basemen like Joey Votto (7.5) or Paul Goldschmidt (5.8). As for his defense, the advanced numbers spit on Hosmer’s Gold Glove collection: He’s sharply in the negative by Defensive Runs Saved (-20 over 8,950 1/3 innings) and not much better by UZR (-29 overall, -4.1 per 150 games). Always take fielding stats with a pillar of salt, and it’s worth noting that Hosmer’s best attribute—scooping throws—isn’t reflected in them. But those figures don’t suggest a peerless defender at the position.

The underlying offensive stats are worrisome too. While the rest of the game has embraced putting the ball in the air, Hosmer continues to pound the ball into the dirt. His 55.6% ground-ball rate last year was fourth highest among all qualified hitters, and his 22.2% fly-ball rate was third lowest. That’s fine if you’re a slap-hitting speedster like Dee Gordon, but Hosmer is supposed to be a slugging first baseman. And while Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium is a homer-suppressing park, spacious Petco is even worse; don’t expect a power renaissance there.

Then there’s the matter of the team around him. You don’t lose 91 games by accident: The Padres, as currently constructed, aren’t built to win now. San Diego was dead last in runs in 2017 with just 604 scored—nearly 300 fewer than league-leading Houston—and second-to-last in OPS+ with 84; the team, as a whole, was the offensive equivalent of Freddy Galvis (whom the Padres acquired back in December to fill a shortstop hole that’s existed for roughly forever). Despite being in a pitcher’s park, San Diego had a 4.67 ERA, fifth-worst in the NL, and an 88 ERA+. Clayton Richard, a 34-year-old lefty who posted a 4.79 ERA and 86 ERA+ last season, will likely get the Opening Day nod, and the only thing sadder than the fact that he’s far and away the best choice for that honor is that this will be the second straight year he draws that assignment. The bullpen is such an anonymous collection of disposable arms that I will mail you $20 if you can name even three Padres relievers off the top of your head. By design, there is precious little major league talent to work with.

You can argue until the moon crumbles into dust what Hosmer’s true value is, but it’s clear that, despite his youth and production, he isn’t a piece you build your franchise around; he’s a player who puts a good team over the top. But the Padres are nowhere near a good team in 2018 despite the depth of their farm system. Plus, Hosmer’s arrival will take San Diego’s lone star player before him—Myers—and force him off of first base and into the outfield, where his lethargic defense will likely cancel out whatever value he produces with his bat. It’s an especially flummoxing move, too, when you consider that there were cheaper options on the market, like Logan Morrison and Lucas Duda, who were good bets to produce 90% of Hosmer’s stats at 25% of the price and contract length.

So why throw close to $150 million at a good but flawed player to help you go from 71 wins to 75? Assuming the Padres don’t actually think this team is secretly a contender or aren’t planning on poisoning the rest of the NL West, consider Hosmer to be the 2018 edition of Jayson Werth. As you may recall, Werth was the first big free-agent catch in Nationals franchise history when he signed a seven-year, $126 million deal after the 2010 season. Werth, then 31, was coming off a phenomenal campaign with the Phillies; the Nationals had just wrapped up a 93-loss season, their fifth straight year below .500. It was an odd move at the time, and given how poorly Werth played in D.C. thanks to injuries and aging, it’s easy to look at it as an expensive mistake on the part of an overeager front office.

Yet Werth’s addition was more than just the impact he could have on the field. It was, if nothing else, a statement on the part of the Nationals—the first sign that a laughingstock franchise was serious about clawing its way out of the muck. Werth wasn’t fully responsible for Washington’s subsequent turnaround; more of that is owed to Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, among others. But his signing was about legitimacy and luring in other free agents, and as it turned out, he became an important veteran voice in a young clubhouse, particularly for Harper, with the two becoming fast friends.

Is that what the Padres have in mind for Hosmer? It makes sense if so. A productive young core is closer than you think in San Diego: Beyond Myers, there’s centerfielder Manuel Margot (23), rightfielder Hunter Renfroe (26), starter Dinelson Lamet (25), and catcher Austin Hedges (25). Down on the farm, meanwhile, you have top-10 prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. (19) and Luis Urias (20) as the middle infield of the future, plus promising pitchers Cal Quantrill (22), Michel Baez (22), and 2017 first-round pick MacKenzie Gore (19).

Hosmer, with his World Series experience and as a veteran of Kansas City’s youth movement, will be asked to shepherd that group into the majors, and he’s young enough that he won’t be a creaky bag of bones by the time they reach San Diego. He isn’t so much a play for 2018, then, as he is for 2019 and beyond. And for as expensive as he is, San Diego’s laughably low payroll (just $70.6 million for 2018 before his deal is added and topping out at $118.5 million in ’22) can accommodate him and future moves easily.

It’s not exactly fair to suggest that the Padres have given Hosmer nine figures to be a babysitter, and that’s not entirely the case anyway. But his contract is easier to understand if you look at him as the harbinger of a better tomorrow in San Diego then as some crackpot get-rich-quick scheme on the part of Preller, who’s already seen that particular plan blow up in his face. There’s still plenty of risk here, and his addition would make more sense if San Diego were closer to contention. But by taking advantage of a depressed market, the Padres have landed what they likely hope is the first piece of a winner that we can only see the vague outline of right now. If nothing else, at least, Hosmer adds one more point in San Diego’s recruiting favor. Come here, he says; we may stink, but we won’t forever, and besides, you’ll never have to sit through another rain delay again.

Miami-Dade County Suing Fmr. & Current Miami Marlins Owners

Miami-Dade County is suing former Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and the new ownership group led by Derek Jeter seeking money from the $1.2 billion sale of the team.

Miami-Dade County Suing Fmr. & Current Miami Marlins Owners

Miami-Dade County is suing former Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and the new ownership group led by Derek Jeter seeking money from the $1.2 billion sale of the team.

Miami-Dade County Suing Fmr. & Current Miami Marlins Owners

Miami-Dade County is suing former Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and the new ownership group led by Derek Jeter seeking money from the $1.2 billion sale of the team.

Miami-Dade County Suing Fmr. & Current Miami Marlins Owners

Miami-Dade County is suing former Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and the new ownership group led by Derek Jeter seeking money from the $1.2 billion sale of the team.